so my kid had an 8:00am Final today. Apparently he was there early so he decided to go downstairs and eat and cram just a bit more. When he went back upstairs and got there around 8:10am, the proctor wouldn’t let him in. Oops.
Moral of the story, when it comes to Finals, when they say a start time, be there on time…not Berkeley time.
Final consequence: he’ll get an incomplete for the Final, he’ll get to take the Final in December again for the grade. Apparently a few others got caught as well, since this info was sent out as a group post on the internal Piazza page. I wonder if this is a new policy or if there is simply more enforcement.
@ProfessorPlum168 I’m shocked, I’ve seen people showing up as late as 20 minutes and the GSIs/instructors hustled to handle the exam to them, no questions asked at all. Will he receive a penalization for taking the final in December? Have your kid consult with someone from Students Affairs, this seems overly harsh.
Yikes. Does this have anything to do with an honor policy for engineering? Just curious but will pass this on to my son, different school but would hate to see that happen. Thx for sharing.
Yeah the circumstances was even weirder considering that this was an 8am final (usual lecture time is 12:30pm) and a ton of people in this same class had a 7-10pm final the night before for CS 61B, and a 3pm final for CS 70 right after the EE16B final. No penalty, other than the fact that he can’t declare for Data Science yet (I think) until the class is completed. It actually turned out ok because it allowed him to fully focus on his CS 70 final exam (much more important class).
Apparently an email was sent out the evening before (which my kid did not read since he was taking a final) stating that everyone should be there on time or else entry would be denied.
From what the proctor told my kid, she mentioned that someone taking the test went pretty early to the bathroom, and they wanted to prevent a circumstance where a student would go to the bathroom and tell someone the questions. That seems a bit far-fetched to me, but that’s what I heard was one of the driving forces behind this decision to not allow entry to late people.
This actually sets a potential bad precedent in that a student who might not be prepared for a final, for example, might want to intentionally be late so that he or she gets an extra few months to prepare lol.
Oh well, at least an Incomplete grade will not show up in his transcript after he takes the final in December. I would still check that there is no conflict between that final and the current final schedule for Fall 19.
I had 30 minutes between two of my finals this semester (17 units total, so I could not avoid overlapping some of the exams), and it’s not an experience I want to repeat again lol
I’m glad everything seems to be working out for your kid in the CS track, congratulations!
My motto is “I would rather be a little early than a little late”.
Not sure I would want to be late to a final or an important client meeting. If the final is 8:00am, I would expect to be there at least 15 minutes before the test. Important life lesson learned I’m sure.
@smsk of all things, that makeup final is slated to be at the same time as Data 100 lol. But I think both classes are amenable to an alternate final change from what the kid told me. CS declaration is not known yet, CS70 grades aren’t out yet which is a bit stressful for the kid.
@socaldad2002 this is a good lesson for the kid, that’s for sure.
I’m having a hard time understanding why anyone would be cut leeway on tests and finals like this, but D reports hearing of incidences of it all the time. She has a friend who completely slept through her midterm and was allowed to take it during a session for those needing accommodations (hers was the last section of this class, so this was her last chance). Berkeley time for lectures is one thing; this is a final. Oh, well, nothing like a natural consequence to learn a lesson. As long as he doesn’t repeat it, it was well worth it. Better to be a bit paranoid vs. becoming complacent.
@Undercrackers… Because crap happens. My son showed up to a test at the wrong time. It was an important class for him. Something got changed and he didn’t get the memo… Per se. He emailed the professor and he told my son “Don’t worry, crap (used another word) happens and sometimes we all need that one extra chance. Be at my office at 1:00 pm tomorrow if that works for you”.
I personally think that was the correct way to handle it. I can tell you that, that will never happen again to my son. That scared the crap out of him. Could of delayed something another year.
I think there was a discussion about this incident in reddit in the r/Berkeley subreddit. Apparently, the class had a policy that on the Final, when the first person left the exam room to go to the restroom, the door to the exam was to be closed and no further entrants allowed in. Apparently, someone left to go to the restroom a few minutes after 8:00 AM.
Yea, I find that strange. I know at Michigan that they have an honor code and the professor think he sits outside the classroom. Some students are like honor police inside.